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A 
 
 BRIEF ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE RISE 
 
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 FRIENDS' BOOK STORE, 
 
 No. 304 Aech Stbeet. 
 
 1889. 
 
Rise of the Society of Friends. 
 
 In tracing the history of the Christian Church from its 
 earliest establishment, through the period of its decline, until 
 it reached that long and dark night of apostacy which for 
 ages preceded the Reformation, we find, that in proportion as 
 the life and substance of religion decayed, a multitude of cere- 
 monies were introduced in their place, little, if at all, less oner- 
 ous than the typical institutions of the Mosaic law. This has 
 ever been the result when the ingenuity of man has attempted 
 to improve or adorn the simplicity of spiritual religion. There 
 is a natuTal activity in the human mind which prompts it to 
 be busy, and can with difficulty submit to that self-renuncia- 
 tion which the Gospel enjoins. It is much easier for a pro- 
 fessor of religion to be engaged in the performances of rites 
 and ceremonies than to yield his heart an entire sacrifice to 
 God. Objects presented to the mind through the medium of 
 the natural senses produce a powerfiil impression, and are 
 more easily apprehended than those truths which are address- 
 ed to the intellectual faculties only, and are designed to sub- 
 due and control the wayward passions of the human heart. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that instead of that worship of 
 the Almighty Father which is in Spirit and in Truth, and 
 which requfres the subjection of the will and activity of man, 
 and the prostration of the whole soul in reverent humility be- 
 fore God, a routine of ceremonies and forms should have been 
 substituted, calculated to strike the eye and the ear with ad- 
 miration. 
 
 As the period of degeneracy was marked by the great 
 amount and increase of these ceremonies, so, when it pleased 
 the Most High to raise up individuals and enlighten them to 
 see the existing corruptions, and how far the professed Chris- 
 
 3 
 
4 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tian Church had departed from original purity, and to pre- 
 pare them for instruments in working a reformation, one of 
 their first duties was, to draw men oif from those rites by which 
 their minds had been unduly occupied, and on which they had 
 too much depended, instead of pressing after experimental re- 
 ligion in the heart. 
 
 This, of necessity, was a progressive work. The brightness 
 of meridian day bursts not at once upon the world. There is 
 a gradual increase of light from its earliest dawn until it 
 reaches its fullest splendor; yet the feeblest ray which first 
 darts through' the thick darkness, is the same in its nature 
 with the most luminous blaze. It makes manifest those things 
 which the Divine controversy is against, and leads back to the 
 state of Gospel simplicity and purity from which the visible 
 Church has lapsed. And although the light may not be suf- 
 ficiently clear to discover all the corruptions, nor the state of 
 the world such as to bear their removal, yet those holy men 
 who act up faithfully to the degree of knowledge with which 
 they are favored, are worthy of donble honor, as instruments 
 for correcting the growing evils of their day, and preparing 
 the way for further advancement in the reformation. 
 
 It is interesting to observe, that the different religious So- 
 cieties which have arisen since the reformation all aimed at 
 the attainment of greater degrees of spirituality and a more 
 fervent piety than was generally to be found among the sect 
 from which they sprung. The idea, that forms were too much 
 substituted for power, and a decent compliance with the ex- 
 ternals of religion for its heart-changing work seems to have 
 given rise to them all. Each successive advance lopped off 
 some of the ceremonial excrescences, with a view of making 
 the system more conformable to the Apostolic pattern. In 
 the early part of the seventeenth century considerable pro- 
 gress was made in this work, tending to prepare the way for 
 that more full and cornplete exemplification of the original 
 simplicity of the Gospel which was exhibited to the world by 
 George Fox and his coadjutors. It is no arrogant assumption 
 to assert, that to whatever point in the reformation we turn 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 5 
 
 our attention, we find the germ of those principles, which were 
 subsequently developed and carried out by the founders of our 
 Society, actuating the Reformers and leading them to results 
 approaching nearer to those attained by Friends, in propor- 
 tion to the faithfulness and measure of light bestowed on the 
 iadiyidual. 
 
 Opinions very similar to those held by our Society on the 
 subjects of the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 ibaptism and other ceremonies, superstitious rites, war, oaths, 
 and a ministry of human appointment and education, were 
 promulgated by individuals at different periods antecedent to 
 the rise of Friends, though not advanced as distinguishing 
 tenets by any considerable body of professors. 
 
 The reformation from Popery under Edward VI. was but 
 partial. Many of the errors and superstitions of that pompous 
 and ceremonial religion were retained ; partly because the 
 dawning light was not sufficient to reveal their true character, 
 and partly in compliance with the popular prej ndice in favor 
 of ancient institutions and of a showy and imposing form of 
 worship. There were, however, men of eminent piety and re- 
 ligious discernment who perceived the degeneracy from primi- 
 tive Christianity, which gave birth to those corruptions, and 
 had since fostered their growth and promoted their increase, 
 until they threatened to supplant vital religion. 
 
 Ob the death of Edward, the hopes which these had cherish- 
 ed, of further advances toward the original simplicity and 
 purity of Christianity, were extinguished by the accession of 
 Mary and the barbarous persecution which followed. Many 
 sealed with their blood the testimony of a good conscience, and 
 by faithfulness unto death not only proved the sincerity of 
 their profession, but prepared the way for those nearer ap- 
 proaches to Divine Truth which have since been made. If 
 the clearer spiritual light of the present day unfolds to us 
 some points in which the belief of those holy men was defec- 
 tive, it also places in stronger relief, as a noble example wor- 
 thy of all imitation, the undaunted firmness and integrity of 
 their characters, their love of Christ, and their devotion to his 
 
6 A BRIKF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 cause. It cannot be viewed in any other light than as a Divine 
 interposition in behalf of his suffering people, that this bigoted 
 and relentless Queen so soon closed her career, after a brief 
 and inglorious reign. 
 
 When Elizabeth came to the throne, she found herself sur- 
 rounded by Papists strongly attached to their religion and 
 zealous for its support. Her prudence dictated a cautious 
 course in changing the existing order of things. Too great or 
 sudden alterations might have hazarded the peace of the 
 realm, and even brought her crown into jeopardy. Elizabeth, 
 moreover, was fond of magnificence in her devotions ; and in 
 this respect the pomp of popery suited well with her inclina- 
 tions. It is questionable, indeed, whether her preference for 
 the Protestant religion was not as much owing to her affection 
 for her brother. King Edward, and respect for the memory of 
 her father, as to any decided conviction of its nearer approxi- 
 mation to the standard of Scripture Truth. 
 
 She restored the liturgy and order of worship as established 
 by her brother, and strictly enjoined its observance, though 
 many of her Protestant subjects conscientiously .objected to 
 some parts of it. The idol of uniformity, and the long cherish- 
 ed idea of a Catholic Church, to which the Papists had made 
 such lavish sacrifices of human life, had strong attractions even 
 for Protestants ; and Elizabeth, as well as her successors, per- 
 secuted even to death not a few of her pious subjects, in the 
 vain attempt to coerce the consciences of men and reduce them 
 to one common standard. 
 
 The doctrines and form of worship revived by Elizabeth 
 after the death of Mary, left the minds of many much dis- 
 satisfied. They desired a more thorough separation from the 
 errors of Popery, a similar method of church government, 
 and a purer and more spiritual religion and worship. These 
 were called Puritans ; a name which, though bestowed oil 
 them with no good design, yet agreed well with those things 
 for which they contended. 
 
 The Protestants who fled to Frankfort during the persecu- 
 tion under Queen Mary, unanimously concluded to dispense 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 7 
 
 with the litany, surplice and responses of the Church of Eng- 
 land ; that public service should begin with a general confes- 
 sion of sins, then the people to sing a psalm in metre in a plain 
 tune, after which the minister should pray for the assistance 
 of the Holy Spirit, and proceed to sermon. These innova- 
 tions on the established order of the Service-Book led to warm 
 disputes, which soon spread into England; and though at 
 times the breach would seem nearly closed, yet the controversy 
 was again and again renewed, and efforts made to procure fur- 
 ther reformations from the errors of the Eomish Church. 
 
 Soon after Elizabeth came to the throne, she appointed a 
 Commission to review the liturgy as established by Edward. 
 The alterations made in it were rather in favor of the Papists 
 than the Puritans, by many of whom it was viewed as more 
 objectionable than the old Service-Book. It was, however, 
 presented to Parliament, and adopted as the national form of 
 religion, by " The Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer 
 and Service in the Church," &c. The same Parliament passed 
 an act vesting the entire ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the crown^ 
 and empowering the Queen, " with the advice of her commis- 
 sioners or metropolitan, to ordain and publish such further 
 ceremonies and rites as may be for the advancement of God's 
 glory and edifying his Church, and the reverence of Christ's 
 holy mysteries and sacraments." 
 
 The act of uniformity was the source of great mischief to 
 the Church. Many conscientious ministers and others could 
 not conform to its requirements, believing them to be opposed 
 to the doctrines and precepts of the Bible. The rigorous en- 
 forcement of the act, while it punished the bodies of men and 
 wasted their estates, did not convince their minds ; but rather 
 strengthened their opposition to and alienated their affections 
 from the Church 
 
 In the doctrinal views of the two parties, the Conformists 
 and the Puritans, there was little avowed difference. The 
 uneasiness arose chiefly from a conscientious objection to the as- 
 sumptibnsof the bishops — the introduction of numerous unscrip- 
 tural oiBces and titles in the church — the laxity of her disci- 
 
». A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 pline — the prohibition of extemporaneous prayeT — the numer- 
 ous festivals — the use of organs and other instruments of music 
 in time of worship — of the sign of the cross in the ceremony 
 of baptism — kneeling at the ceremony of the supper — ^bowing 
 at the name of Jesus and on entering or leaving their places 
 of worship — to the ring in marriage, as well as parts of the 
 words spoken during the rite ; and to the use of the surplice 
 and other vestments by the priest during Divine service. 
 Such were the principal grounds of difference in the com- 
 mencement of the dispute ; and though the Conformists af- 
 fected to consider them non-essential, yet they insisted on them 
 with a pertinacity which increased the opposition and widened 
 the breach, until at length it produced an entire separation, 
 fromjfhich have sprung the various classes of Dissenters. 
 
 That the Puritans were conscientious in their objections to 
 tfce established religion, will not be questioned by such as are 
 cquainted with the piety of their lives, and the patience and 
 [brtitude with which they endured persecution for their re- 
 igious opinions. Connected with these was a steadfast resists- 
 ance to the assumed power of the crown, as visible head of 
 the Church, to prescribe to, and control, the conscience of the 
 subject in things not essential. Against this they manfully 
 contended while the reins of government were in the hands of 
 their opponents. But when the revolution of civU affairs 
 placed them, in possession of the power, they, too, soon forgot 
 the principles of rational and Christian liberty for which they 
 had formerly struggled, and exercised on others the oppres- 
 sion and cruelty which they had so much condemned in their 
 own case. 
 
 Contending for their religious liberty naturally had the ef- 
 fect to make them more jealous of their civil rights ; and hence 
 during the subsequent reign, we find them standing forth as 
 staunch opposers of the encroachments of the crown. 
 
 That they were instruments in the hand of Providence for 
 carrying forward the reformation from the errors and super- 
 stitions by which Christianity had been overlaid, cannot be 
 doubted; yet as this was a gradual work accomplished by 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9 
 
 slow degrees, the corruption not being all discovered at once, 
 but progressively, according to the faithfulness of those en- 
 gaged in the work ; so others rose up and separated from them, 
 who carried the reformation still further. 
 
 The first of these was the Society of Brownists, who contend- 
 ed that the Church of England was not a true church, because 
 of the Popish corruptions which she retained and enforced, and 
 her persecution for the sake of religion — that the power of 
 church government was in the members — that the ministry 
 was not subject to human selection and ordination, but that 
 any brother who felt engaged might preach or exhort, and 
 that prayer was not to be limited to prescribed forms. Their 
 modej)f discipline was congregational, every Society being dis- 
 tinct and independent of the others ; holding intercourse and 
 . communion, however, as brethren and professors of a common 
 faith. The severe persecutions which they experienced from 
 the government, induced many of this persuasion to fly to the 
 continent, where they met with little better treatment. They 
 appear to have been a zealous and sincere people, living with 
 strictness and regularity, and preaching with much fervor and 
 energy. 
 
 The spirit of inquiry was now abroad, and increasing in 
 vigor and activity. Instead of receiving opinions on the au- 
 thority of church canons or dignitaries, there was a growing 
 disposition to bring them to the test of revealed truth. Many 
 which had long been implicitly adopted, and transmitted from 
 one generation to another, were now called in question and 
 warmly debated. As early as 1617, John Selden published 
 ^s History of _ Tithes, in which he contends that they are of 
 human, not Divine, appointment. It was not to be supposed 
 that those whose worldly interests were affected by such an 
 opinion would suffer his book to pass without severe animad- 
 version ; and as a readier mode of counteracting its effects 
 than the resort to argument, the author was summoned before 
 the High Court of Commissioners, and, after various threats, 
 compelled to recant his sentiments. 
 
 Another class of dissenters which took its rise about this 
 
10 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 time, was the Society_of^Indegend6nts, which grew out of the 
 ^BrOwnlsts. Its name is derived from the system of church 
 government, in which each congregation formed a ^distinct 
 body, regulating its own affairs, judging of the fitness of per- 
 sons applying for menibership, and of the propriety of expell- 
 ing such as walked disorderly, independently of all others. 
 Their doctrines agreed in the main with those of the other dis- 
 senters. During the times of the Commonwealth and Protec- 
 torate, they were distinguished by their attachment to tolera- 
 tion, which the Presbyterians denounced as " an hideous mon- 
 ster, the great Diana of the Independents." They were not, 
 however constant to their own principles; for, whem they 
 subsecfuently acquired the power, they exercised considerable 
 severity toward both Friends and Baptists. They received 
 the patronage and support of Oliver Cromwell, and are often 
 mentioned in connection with the history of Friends. 
 
 At a very early period of the Reformation, the subject of 
 water baptism appears to have attracted the serious attention 
 of pious men, and their researches into it led some of them to 
 differ from the generally received opinions respecting it. 
 
 From Fuller's Church History it appears Wickliffe held 
 i " That wise men leave that as impertinent which is not plainly 
 expressed in Scripture ; that those are foolish and jxresump- 
 tuous who affirm that infants are not saved if they die without 
 baptism; and that baptism does not confer [grace], but only 
 signifies grace which was given before. He also denied that all 
 sins are abolished in baptism ; asserted that children may be 
 saved without baptism, and that the baptism of water profiteth 
 not without the baptism of the Spirit." 
 
 During the fifteenth century, there were a number of per- 
 sons in England who denied the necessity of water baptism, 
 and held " That Christian people were sufficiently baptized in 
 the blood of Christ, and needed no water; and that the sacra- 
 ment of baptism with water, used in the church, is but a light 
 matter, and of small effect." Some of these suffered death by 
 fire for adherence to their principles; and for a long period 
 afterwards, those who entertained similar views were the ob- 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 11 
 
 jects of severe persecution. In the sixteenth century, the So- 
 ciety of Bajitists_QE,Aiiabaptists took its rise. They objected 
 to infant baptism as unautKoHzed by Scripture, and rebap- 
 tized those adults whom they considered as believers and ad- 
 mitted to the privileges of their communion. Besides their 
 peculiar views on this subject, some of them held war to be in- 
 consistent with Christianity, and doubted the lawfulness of 
 oaths under the gospel dispensation. They also insisted that 
 the gospel ought to be free, and denied the right of tithes or 
 other compulsory maintenance for its ministers. They were 
 generally persons of great seriousness of mind and strictness 
 of deportment, searching the Scriptures diligently ; and being 
 wearied with the ceremonies and impositions of men, were 
 desirous to practise that form of religion only which they be- 
 lieved to be sanctioned by our Lord and his apostles. 
 
 Their views of the Christian ministry did not make it essen- 
 tial that those who took part therein should prepare for it by 
 the. acquisition of learning, but gave liberty for any to speak 
 a word, either in doctrine or exhortation, who believed them- 
 selves called thereto and qualified by the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit. Some were zealously opposed to a hireling ministry, 
 declaiming against it in their preaching, by which they sub- 
 jected -themselves to severe suflferings. Many of this persua- 
 sion were imprisoned during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies, and patiently endured their confinement, showing by 
 their steadfastness under suffering that they were actuated by 
 motives sincerely conscientious. Of this class was the pious / I 
 John Bunyan, whose imprisonment lasted nearly twelve years, j ( 
 
 The first Presbyterian church established in England was 
 in 1572. It consisted of Puritans, (then so called) who, among 
 other things, dissented from the government of the church by 
 bishops, &c., conceiving that by pastors and presbyters or 
 elders to be more consistent with Holy Scripture. They 
 agreed with the Independents, in denying the divine right of 
 the bishops to order and direct the congregation ; but instead 
 of leaving each distinct, with absolute control over its own 
 members and officers, they associated several churches in one 
 
12 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 synod, and a number of these again united in forming a gen- 
 eral assembly, which is the supreme ecclesiastical body. 
 
 This Society comprised a much larger number of members 
 than either of the others we have mentioned ; and the part 
 they acted in the revolution which drove Charles I. from the 
 tlirone, and finally brought him to the scaffold, as well as in 
 the affairs of government during the interregnum, rendered 
 them suffici^tly conspicuous. 
 
 The persecutions they endured while the reins of govern- 
 ment were in the hands of the Church party, we should sup- 
 pose would have taught them moderation and charity towards 
 the conscientious dissent of others; but no sooner were they 
 placed in the seat of power than they began to contend for 
 uniformity in faith and practice — the Moloch of Christendom, 
 to which many of her choicest sons had been wantonly sacri- 
 ficed. 
 
 So fierce was their opposition to toleration, that after a long 
 conference of a Committee of Parliament, for the purpose of 
 making some agreement by which the Independents might be 
 accommodated in their views of church government, the 
 scheme was necessarily abandoned, because the Presbyterians 
 refused to concede anything. They who but lately had con- 
 tended against the divine right of the bishops, were now 
 urgent to mAke all yield to the divine right of presbytery. 
 The ministers of Sion College pronounced toleration " a root 
 of gall and bitterness;" others of the sect declaimed against it 
 as contrary to godliness — opening a door to libertinism and 
 profanity, and that it ought to be rejected as " soul-poison." 
 Liberty of conscience was declared to be the nourisher of all 
 heresies and schisms, and most of the sermons preached before 
 the House of Commons, while the question was under debate, 
 breathed the spirit of persecution, and incited the ruling powers 
 to draw the sword against such as would not conform. The 
 Presbyterians little thought that their own arguments would 
 quickly be used against themselves, and the severity they had 
 exercised upon others returned with full measure into their 
 own bosoms. This was lamentably the case after the restora- 
 
EISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 13 
 
 lion, when the Church of England, having regained her power, 
 exercised it with little mercy, in the Vain attempt to force 
 men's consciences into a conformity with her prescriptions. 
 
 We have now noticed the principal sects which existed at 
 the time our Society arose, and to whom the reader will find 
 allusion made in the writings of Friends. They were all 
 strenuously opposed to the Roman Catholic church ; and while 
 King James I. and his son Charles I. were both suspected of 
 favoring that religion, as well as some of the dignitaries of the 
 Episcopal church, the Dissenters availed themselves of every 
 opportunity to show their dislike to it. This contributed not a 
 little to alienate their affections from the throne, and to widen 
 the breach to which their persecution had given rise. 
 
 The violation of their natural and civil rights, the disregard 
 of their often-repeated and respectful petitions, and the fre- 
 quent breach of promises solemnly made, tended to make the 
 Puritans suspicious of James, and induced them to watch with 
 the most jealous eye every encroachment of the crown. The 
 House- of Stuart were remarkable for arrogant and arbitrary 
 assumption in virtue of their prerogative. However the exi- 
 gency of the occasions may extenuate some of their acts, 
 there are others which deserve no milder appellations than 
 tyranny and oppression. Against these the Dissenters inveigh- 
 ed with boldness and vehemence, and, as is usually the case, 
 the cry of oppression rallied to their side a host of partisans, 
 until at length the king had lost the affections of a large portion 
 of his subjects. Instead of pacifying them by some concessions, 
 and soothing their incensed feelings by gentleness and clemen- 
 cy, measures still more harsh and offensive were pursued to- 
 wards them. 
 
 They were punished as factious schisniatics — as enemies to 
 the king and government, and inciters of the people to rebel- 
 lion — were fined, whipped, maimed, imprisoned and banished 
 — enduring almost every species of hardship and suffering 
 which cruelty could suggest. It were no wonder, if men who 
 had felt so severely the abuses of regal power should be in 
 favor of a form of government by which it could be restrained 
 2 
 
14 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 within more just and reasonable limits, and the rights of the 
 subject be more effectually secured. 
 
 The disputes between the Puritans and the Church party, 
 which had been carried on with no little acrimony during the 
 reigns of Elizabeth and James I., increased in violence under 
 Charles, and began to assume the most serious aspect, threat- 
 ening to destroy the peace of the nation. The Puritans had 
 augmented in numbers and importance, and the flagrant out- 
 rages committed upon them produced commiseration in the 
 minds of many who yet were sincere in their attachment to the 
 religion of the national Church. So little regard was had to law 
 or equity in the treatment of them, that their cause gradually 
 became identified with the preservation of the constitution and 
 laws of the country. To be a Puritan was synonymous with 
 an opponent of ecclesiastical domination ; of the tyranny and 
 encroachments of royalty, under the convenient plea of pre- 
 rogative ; and to be the advocate of the rights and liberties of 
 the subject. In this way politics and religion became blended, 
 and afterward it was the policy of each party to maintain the 
 connection. 
 
 Beside the matters originally contested, new sources of dis- 
 satisfaction and other subjects of dispute became involved in 
 the controversy. 
 
 Many of the clergy of the Establishment had become cor- 
 rupt and licentious; they seldom preached, neglected their 
 congregations and places of wo'rship, and were engaged in 
 practices not only unbecoming the sacred character, but, in 
 some cases, even scandalously immoral. They encouraged 
 rather than repressed the licentiousness of the times, and 
 seemed much more addicted to mirth and amusements than to 
 the duties of the ministerial office. Their example, and that of 
 the Court, had a demoralizing effect upon others, especially the 
 lower orders of society. 
 
 In order to counteract the opinion that the reformed religion 
 was severe and strict in its requisitions, James published, in 
 1618, a royal declaration, drawn up by one of the Episcopal 
 bishops, stating, that "for his good people's recreation, his 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 15 
 
 Majesty's pleasure was, that after the end of Divine service 
 they should not be disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any 
 lawful recreations, such as dancing, either of men or women, 
 archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless 
 recreations; nor having May games, whitsonales, or morrice 
 dances, or setting up of May poles, or other sports therewith 
 used, so as the same may be had in due and convenient time, 
 without impediment or let of Divine service." 
 
 This was a source of great offence to the Puritans ; and when 
 the declaration was republished by Charles, and directed to be 
 read in all the churches, many of the ministers refused to com- 
 ply- 
 
 The license given by the indulgence produced the results 
 which might reasonably have been anticipated. The sports 
 degenerated into noisy and tumultuous revels, with tippling, 
 quarrels, and sometimes even murder. These disorders grew 
 to such a height that the justices, in some counties, petitioned 
 the judges of the courts to suppress them, which they did. 
 But Archbishop Laud, then primate of England, summoned 
 the judges before the king and council, for invading the Epis- 
 copal jurisdiction. A sharp reprimand and an order to revoke 
 the prohibition was the result. The archbishop taking the 
 matter into his own hands, was informed by the bishop of 
 Bath and Wells, within whose diocese the prohibition had been 
 enforced, that the restoration of the wakes and revels, &c., 
 would be very acceptable to the gentry, clergy, and common 
 people ; in proof of which he had procured the signatures of 
 seventy-two clergymen ; and believed, if he had sent for an 
 hundred more, he could have had the consent of them all. It 
 was determined to continue them, and the king forbade the 
 justices interfering with the people. It may readily be sup- 
 posed, that such proceedings would have a powerful influence 
 in promoting licentiousness, when, in addition to the command 
 of their king, the ministers of religion joined in encouraging 
 practices to which the depraved inclinations of the human 
 heart alone furnished strong excitement. We may safely 
 rank this among the causes which contributed to promote the 
 
16 ' A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 immorality and corruption which so lamentably overspread 
 the nation, and gave rise to the close and sharp reproof which 
 our early Friends so often found it their duty to administer. 
 
 The few Parliaments which James and Charles assembled 
 evinced a disposition to apply some remedy to the religious 
 disseutions and grievances which distracted the nation. This 
 was an interference so little agreeable to the Crown that they 
 were speedily prorogued, and a long period suffered to elapse 
 before another was called, which gave rise to the suspicion that 
 the monarch intended to govern by prerogative only, and with- 
 out the intervention of a Parliament. 
 
 The condition of the nation when Charles came to the 
 throne was melancholy indeed. It was torn by internal dis- 
 sensions, and the affections of a large portion of the people 
 alienated from the king by oppression and injustice. The 
 encroachments of the Crown — the continued encouragement 
 given to Papists, the unmitigated persecution of the Puritans, ■ 
 and of such as had the magnanimity and courage to resist 
 the arbitrary measures of the court and its minions, together 
 with the failure of some of his military enterprises, tended to 
 increase the murmurs, and to rouse the spirit of those who re- 
 garded the liberties and the religion of the country. Influ- 
 enced by mistaken notions of royal prerogative, and misguided 
 by his counsellors, Charles, instead of softening the spirits of 
 the Puritans by some concessions, proceeded to still greater 
 lengths, until the minds of many of his subjects were prepared 
 for any change which promised to restore to them their civil 
 and religious rights. From this state of things it was but a 
 short step to open warfare, and accordingly the nation was 
 soon involved in a civil war, which resulted in bringing 
 Charles to the scaffold, and setting up a new form of govern- 
 ment. Numerous negotiations for a settlement of the .relig- 
 ious differences took place, but neither the king nor the Parlia- 
 ment being willing to accede to the terms proposed by the 
 other, in 1642 they appealed to the sword to settle a contro- 
 versy which had hitherto been managed only by words. Dur- 
 ing the course of the war, which continued with various sue- 
 
KISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 17 
 
 cess for several years, the king was often reduced to great ex- 
 tremities, and at last falling into the hands of the Parliament, 
 he was brought to trial before his avowed enemies, and con- 
 demned to be beheaded as a traitor. This cruel sentence was 
 carried into execution early in 1648. 
 
 It was in 1646, during the prevalence of the civil and r^ 
 ligious commotions, that Geokge Fox commenced his laliors 
 as a minister of the Gospel, being then in the 23rd year of his 
 age. 
 
 After the death of the king the nation was without any 
 legal form of government ; but the Parliament which had as- 
 sumed the power, and exercised it at the commencement of 
 the war, still continued to govern. The Presbyterians had 
 the control of affairs chiefly in their hands, and proceeded to 
 model the religion of the nation to suit their peculiar views. 
 Instead of the liturgy of the Church of England they set up 
 the Directoryfor Public Worship; and, forgetting the severity 
 of their own sufferings for non-conformity, when others were 
 in power, they now set about compelling all to comply with 
 their established forms. The arguments they had used against 
 persecution for religion, when smarting under the lash of the 
 Episcopal Church, were urged upon them in vain. Having 
 the power in their hands, they appeared to consider it as a 
 sufficient authority for coercing others to adopt that form of 
 worship and system of doctrines which they had determined 
 to be the best. Never did religious toleration seem to be less 
 understood, or the great right of liberty of conscience more 
 wantonly disregarded. 
 
 But while the Parliament was acting in conformity with 
 these narrow and bigoted opinions, principles of a contrary- 
 character were at work in the army, where the Independents 
 predominated, and carried with them their wonted liberality 
 toward the. conscientious dissent of others. Against this lati- 
 tude of indulgence the Presbyterians declared with great 
 earnestness, as a source of innumerable evils and tending to 
 the destruction of all religion. A long conference took place 
 between the two parties, for the purpose of making some ar- 
 2* 
 
18 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 rangement by which the Independent form of worship and 
 discipline could be included ; but such was the pertinacity of 
 the Presbyterian faction, that they refused to yield anything, 
 and the scheme was abandoned as hopeless. 
 
 This arbitrary and oppressive course rendered the sect un- 
 popular ; and the Independents, finding they were not likely 
 to obtain much from the Parliament, and having the army on 
 their side, with Oliver Cromwell at its head, he put an end to 
 the Commonwealth and the Parliament together, in the year 
 1653 — the former having continued a little more than four 
 years, and the latter sat as a legislative body, with some short 
 intermissions, for thirteen years. 
 
 It was not long ere Cromwell and his officers struck out a 
 new form of government ; and in the latter end of 1653 he 
 was declared Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ire- 
 land, &c. The principles of the new government, relative to 
 religion, were more liberal and Christian than any which pre- 
 ceded it. The articles of the constitution embracing that sub- 
 ject contain the following, viz:— 
 
 "That the Christian religion contained in the Scriptures 
 be held forth and recommended as the public profession of 
 these nations. 
 
 " That none be compelled to conform to the public religion, 
 by penalties or otherwise ; but that endeavors be used to win 
 them by sound doctrine and the example of a good conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 " That such as profess faith in God, by Jesus Christ, though 
 differing in judgment from the doctrine, worship, and disci- 
 pline publicly held forth, shall not be restrained from, but 
 ■shall be protected in, the profession of their faith, and the ex- 
 ercise of their religion ; so as they abuse not this liberty to the 
 civil injury of others, and to the actual disturbance of the pub- 
 lic peace on their parts ; provided, this liberty be not extended 
 to Popery or Prelacy, or to such as, under a profession of 
 Christ, hold forth and practice licentiousness." 
 
 Creditable as these provisions are to the enlightened views 
 of religious toleration, entertained by those who framed them. 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 19 
 
 they are still defective, in making exceptions to two classes of 
 professors. Had they been faithfiiUy carried out in practice, 
 they would have saved much suffering for consciences' sake, 
 both to Friends and the Baptists. For however favorable the 
 Protector was to granting liberty of conscience to all, it was 
 not the case with the magistrates, justices, and others, in whose 
 hands the execution of the laws was placed. From the cupid- 
 ity or intolerance of these, Friends were often interrupted in 
 the exercise of their religion, and punished, because they could 
 not swear or pay tithes, though to a much less degree than 
 was afterwards the case. 
 
 Toward the close of Cromwell's government he was again 
 declared Protector, under new articles of government, in which 
 an attempt was made to narrow the grounds of toleration, by 
 a more close definition of the doctrines to be professed. 
 
 In the opening of the second session of the Parliament, in 
 1657, the Lord Commissioner Fiennes " warns the House of 
 the rock on which many had split, which was a spirit of im- 
 posing upon men's consciences, in things wherein God leaves 
 them a latitude, and would have them free." — "As God is no 
 respecter of persons, so He is no respecter of forms ; but in 
 what form soever the spirit of imposition appears. He will 
 testify against it. If men, though otherwise good, will turn 
 ceremony into substance, and make the kingdom of Christ 
 consist in circumstances, in discipline, and in forms, . . . 
 in vain do they protest against the persecution of God's peo- 
 ple, when they make the definition of God's people so narrow 
 that their persecution is as broad as any other, and usually 
 more fierce, because edged with a sharp temper of spirit." " It 
 is good to hold forth a public profession of the truth, but not 
 so as to exclude those that cannot come up to it in all points, 
 from the privilege that belongs to them as Christians, much 
 less from the privilege that belongs to them as men." 
 
 These just sentiments, which appeared to be gaining ground 
 in the minds of men, were soon to receive a check, by the 
 change of rulers. In 1658 Oliver Cromwell died, and was 
 succeeded by his son Richard, who, finding the difiiculties 
 
20 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 and perplexities of balancing the power of rival parties and 
 conducting the affairs of State little suited either to his ca- 
 pacity or his inclination, resigned his high and responsible 
 station, after having occupied it only eight months. 
 
 A short interregnum ensued, and in 16^ the kingdom was 
 restored to the house of Stuact, by proclaiming Charles II. 
 ?^ These frequent changes in the government had a tendency 
 to keep up the unsettlement which had long agitated thq 
 nation, as well as those violent party feelings and prejudices 
 is:hich the political and religious struggles had engendered. 
 Friends took no part in the revolutions of government — their 
 principles forbade them putting down or setting up, and 
 taught them to live peaceably, as good citizens, under what- 
 ever power the Ruler of the universe permitted to be estab- 
 lished over them. But though peaceable and non-resisting in 
 their conduct, they were neither idle nor unconcerned specta- 
 tors of the course of events. Believing that righteousness was 
 the only security for a nation's stability and prosperity, they 
 earnestly enforced on the Parliament and Protector, as well as 
 the monarchs who succeeded, the suppression of vice and im- 
 morality, the equal administration of justice, and the removal 
 of all oppression. The addresses made to those in authority 
 by George Fox, Edward Burrough, and others, are marked 
 with innocent boldness and good sense, delivered in a style of 
 great frankness and honesty. Nor did they omit to warn 
 them of the consequences which would ensue if they failed to 
 perform the Divine will, predicting with clearness the over- 
 throw of Oliver's government, and some other changes which 
 occurred. 
 
 In his declaration issued from Breda, on the eve of his sail- 
 ing for England to assume the crown, Charles held this con- 
 ciliatory language, calculated to allay the fears of those who 
 dreaded the restoration of the hierarchy: "We do also de- 
 clare a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be 
 disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion, in 
 matters of religion, which do not disturb the peace of the king- 
 dom." 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 21 
 
 But plausible as are these promises, and sincere as the king 
 might have been in making them, the event proved how little 
 reliance was to be placed upon the royal word. Devoted to 
 his own pleasures, and with too little application or industry 
 to examine the opinions of his advisers, or inquire into the 
 suiferiags sustained by his subjects, he permitted the clergy to 
 pursue their own measures for the promotion of the church, 
 who took care to return the measure of persecution meted to 
 them under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, heaped up 
 and running over, into the bosoms of the Dissenters. Con- 
 formity was rigidly enforced, and, not satisfied with the exist- 
 ing statutes for punishing those who dared to differ in their 
 consciences from the prescribed standard, new and more op- 
 pressive laws were procured. 
 
 The persecution fell with peculiar severity on Friends, who 
 were suspected of being unfriendly to the restoration of the 
 king, from their refusal to take any oath, and consequently 
 the oath of allegiance to the crown — though they repeatedly 
 offered instead their most solemn declarations to the same ef- 
 fect. 
 
 The peaceable and unresisting spirit which governed the 
 conduct of Friends seemed to embolden their persecutors to 
 oppress them without color of law or justice, knowing they 
 had nothing to fear from the law of retaliation, and that but 
 few could be found to plead their cause or espouse the defence 
 of their rights. 
 
 To give some color to the severities practised against them, 
 pretexts were drawn from supposed violations of the regula- 
 tions of civil policy — "A Christian exhortation to an assembly, 
 after the priest had done and the worship was over, was de- 
 nominated interrupting public worship and disturbing the 
 priest in his office; an honest testimony against wickedness in 
 the streets or market-place, was styled a breach of the peace; 
 and their appearing before the magistrates covered, a con- 
 tempt of authority ,' hence proceeded fines, imprisonments, and 
 spoiling of goods. Nay, so hot were some of the magistrates 
 for persecution, even in Cromwell's- time, that by an un- 
 
22 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 paralleled and most unjust misconstruction of the law against 
 vagrants, they tortured with cruel whippings and exposed in 
 the stocks the bodies both of men and women of good estate 
 and reputation, merely because they went under the denomi- 
 nation of Quakers." 
 
 Several obsolete statutes were brought to bear most heavily 
 upon Friends, though originally enacted with a view of reach- 
 ing the Papirts, who refused to conform to the established re- 
 ligion. Among these was an act passed in the thirty-second 
 year of Henry VIII.'s reign, against subtracting or withhold- 
 ing tithes; obliging justices to commit obstinate defendants to 
 prison until they should find sufficient security for their com- 
 pliance. — The laws made in Elizabeth's reign for enforcing a 
 uniformity of worship, authorizing the levy of a fine of one 
 shilling per week for the use of the poor, from such as did not 
 resort to some church of the established religion every Sabbath 
 or holy day, — and also another, establishing a forfeiture of 
 twenty pounds per month for the like default. A third law 
 empowered the officers to seize all the goods, or a third part 
 of the lands, of every such ofiender for the fine of twenty 
 pounds. And as if these were not sufficiently severe, another, 
 enacted in the thirty-fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, obliging 
 ofienders in the like case to abjure the realm, on pain of 
 death, was used against Friends. 
 
 All these laws were revived, and attempts made to enforce 
 them in the cases of Friends, though it was well known they 
 were designed to bear upon the Papists. As Friends could 
 not conscientiously pay tithes, believing that the ministry of 
 the gospel should be free, according to the express injunction 
 of Christ to his apostles, "Freely ye have received, freely 
 give," great havoc was made of their property by the rapa- 
 cious priests. 
 
 The Society of Friends viewed the positive command of our 
 Lord, " Swear not at all," corroborated by the exhortation of 
 the Apostle James, "But above all things, my brethren, swear 
 not; neither by Heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any 
 other oath," as being of indispensable obligation, and entirely 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 23 
 
 precluding the Christian from taking an oath on any occasion 
 whatever. 
 
 Soon after Charles II. came to the throne the acts made in 
 the reigns of Elizabeth and James, requiring the subject to 
 take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, were revived, and 
 visited upon Friends with great oppression. 
 
 In 1661 the Parliament passed another act, aimed directly 
 at the Society, providing that any Quaker refusing to take an 
 oath, when lawfully tendered, or who should maintain, in 
 writing or otherwise, the unlawfulness of taking an oath ; or 
 if five or more Quakers, above the age of sixteen years, should 
 assemble for religious worship, they should forfeit five pounds 
 for the first oifence, or sufier three months' imprisonment ; 
 doubling the penalty for the second offence ; and for the third 
 they were to abjure the realm or be transported. 
 
 The insurrection of the " Fifth Monarchy Men," as they were 
 called, was the occasion of fresh persecution to Friends. They 
 were a company of infatuated men, who, supposing that the 
 one thousand years of Christ's reign on earth, mentioned in 
 Rev. XX., was just commencing, rose in arms and ran about 
 the streets of London crying out that they were going to over- 
 throw the government of King Charles and set up King 
 Jesus. Although there was not the shadow of reason for con- 
 necting the Society in any way with this wild insurrection, yet 
 the king made it the pretext for issuing his proclamation for 
 the suppression of all unlawful conventicles, or meetings for 
 religious purposes, designating particularly those of the Anar 
 baptists and Quakers. This encouraged the profane and irre- 
 ligious populace to assail the meetings of Friends, and inflict 
 upon them the grossest outrages and cruelties. 
 
 Severe as were the sufierings of Friends under the operation 
 of these oppressive laws, their constancy was not shaken. Thej' 
 fearlessly and openly met for the solemn duty of Divine wor- 
 ship, nothing daunted by the terrors which threatened them. 
 This Christian boldness exasperated their enemies, especially 
 the persecuting priests and magistrates, and another law was 
 procured more prompt and terrible in its operation. It de- 
 
24 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 clared the statute of 35th Elizabeth in full force ; and that 
 every person taken at a meeting consisting of more than five, 
 beside the household, should suffer three months' imprisonment 
 or pay a fine of five pounds, on conviction before two justices 
 — double the penalty for the second ofience ; and being con- 
 victed of a third, before the justices at the Quarter Sessions, 
 should be transported for seven years, or pay one hundred 
 pounds fine —and in case they returned or escaped, they should 
 be adjudged felons and sentenced to death. It also empower- 
 ed sherifls, justices of the peace, and persons commissioned by 
 them, to hunt out and break up all religious meetings, other 
 than those of the established religion, and take into custody 
 such of the company as they saw fit. Persons allowing such 
 meetings in their houses, barns, &c., to be subject to the same 
 penalties and forfeitures as other offenders. Such as were 
 sentenced to transportation were to be sent over sea at their 
 own expense ; and in default of ability to pay, to be sold for 
 five years to defray the charges. Married women taken at 
 meetings to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding twelve 
 months, or their husbands to pay for their redemption not ex- 
 ceeding forty pounds. 
 
 The next enactment by which Friends suffered was com- 
 monly known by the name of the Oxford five-mile act. It 
 was aimed at the Presbyterian and other non-conforming 
 ministers, requiring them to take an oath that it was not law- 
 ful under any pretence to take up arms against the king, and 
 that they would not at any time endeavor to procure any al- 
 teration in the government of church or state. Such as re- 
 fused to take the oath were declared incapable of teaching 
 any school, public or private, under penalty of forty pounds. 
 All non-conforraing ministers were likewise prohibited from 
 coming within five miles of any city, town, or borough send- 
 ing members to Parliament, or within five miles of any place 
 where they had officiated as ministers, unless it might be in 
 passing along a public highway, under a forfeiture of forty 
 pounds ; one-third of which went to the informer. 
 
 The refusal of Friends to take an oath brought their minis- 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 25 
 
 ters ■within the scope of this law, and fines, distraints, and im- 
 prisonments were the consequences. 
 
 In 1670 there appeared to be a disposition among some of 
 the officers of government to put a stop to persecution. The 
 king, on several occasions, had shown dislike to it ; but being 
 opposed by the bishops and Parliament, he had not the firm- 
 ness or resolution to withstand their influence. The former 
 act for suppressing religious meetings having expired, a new 
 one was prepared and passed, making the penalty five shillings 
 for the first offence and ten for the second ; the preachers or 
 teachers in such meetings to forfeit twenty pounds for the first 
 and forty pounds for the second offence ; and twenty pounds 
 penalty for suffering a meeting to be held in a house or barn. 
 A single justice was authorized to convict on the oath of two 
 witnesses, and the fines to be forthwith levied on the offender's 
 goods, and in case of his poverty, on the goods of any other 
 offender present at the same meeting ; provided the amount 
 so levied shall not exceed ten pounds for one meeting — one- 
 third of all the fines to go to the informer, as a reward for his 
 services. Justices, constables and other officers were author- 
 ized to break open and enter any house, or place, where they 
 might be informed there was a conventicle, and search for and 
 take into custody all persons found assembled there. If any 
 justice of the peace refused to perform the duties prescribed in 
 the act, he was to forfeit one hundred pounds, and every con- 
 stable five pounds. And it was further enacted, that " all 
 clauses in the law should be construed most largely and bene- 
 ficially for the suppressing of conventicles, and for the justifi- 
 cation and encouragement of all persons to be employed in the 
 execution thereof." 
 
 A more unjust and oppressive law could scarcely be con- 
 ceived. In the hope of rioting on the spoils of the Quakers' 
 goods, unprincipled men lurked about their dwellings, lodged 
 information against them on the most frivolous pretences, and 
 swore falsely to procure their conviction ; the facility of which 
 was greatly promoted by the privacy of the trial, and resting 
 the decision with a single justice, himself often the accomplice 
 3 
 
26 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of the informer and the sharer of the prey. It would be difficult 
 to conceive a scene of more extensive rapine and plunder, in 
 time of peace and under color of law, than the execution of 
 this act produced throughout the nation. Many Friends 
 were reduced from competency to destitution of the very 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 In 1672 Charles issued his declaration of indulgence, by 
 which, in virtue of his royal prerogative, as supreme in eccle- 
 siastical as well as civil afiairs, he assumed to suspend the 
 operation of the penal laws against the non-conformists. The 
 right of the Sovereign to exercise this power was warmly con- 
 tested. Some of the Dissenters, and especially the Presby- 
 terians, who were extremely jealous of the Papists, and un- 
 favorable to general liberty of conscience, were not forward to 
 accept the boon thus oifered, and even wrote against it, on the 
 ground that it would sanction the exercise of the dispensing 
 power in the king. 
 
 Friends had suffered more severely during the preceding 
 persecutions than any other class of Dissenters. They had 
 stood their ground with unflinching intrepidity, when others 
 fled before the storm. They contended that liberty of con- 
 science was the natural right of all men, and that every in- 
 terference of the civil power with the peaceable exercise of 
 conscientious duty was contrary to Ghristianity and to sound 
 principles of government. They meddled not with the politics 
 of the day, nor professed to be skilled in questions of royal 
 prerogative. The knowledge that hundreds of their brethren 
 were unjustly lying in prisons, while their helpless families 
 were exposed to the rapacity of merciless informers, was an 
 argument sufficiently powerful to induce them to accept the 
 relief which the king's declaration afforded. An application 
 was accordingly made to the Crown for the discharge of those 
 who had been imprisoned for conscience's sake ; and such was 
 the favorable opinion produced by the constancy and uni- 
 formly peaceable and consistent conduct of the Society, that a 
 warrant was readily obtained for their liberation. The suc- 
 cess of this application afforded Friends an opportunity of 
 
EISB OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 27 
 
 proving the sincerity of their opinions in favor of universal 
 toleration and charity. There were other Dissenters confined 
 in the same prisons, and their solicitors requesting the aid of 
 Friends in their behalf, they cheerfully accorded it, and in- 
 eluded the names of those prisoners in the same instrument 
 by which their own members were relieved from bonds. 
 
 The respite which the declaration aiforded was of short 
 duration ; for in the following year the Parliament compelled 
 the king to revoke it, in consequence of which the sufferings 
 of Friends were renewed, though not to the same extent as 
 before. ■ 
 
 If the calamities in which Friends bore so large a share had 
 no other good eifect, they evidently tended to convince the 
 nation of the folly of persecuting men for differences of opinion. 
 More than thirty years of suffering had passed over, and not 
 a single Quaker had been induced by it to abandon his pro- 
 fession — they were as prompt and diligent as ever in the open 
 performance of their religious duties, and as ready patiently 
 to submit to the penalties of unrighteous laws. They never 
 resorted to violence or retaliation, relying on the justice of 
 their cause, the truth and soundiiess of their arguments, and 
 their peaceable and blameless conduct to effect a change in 
 the minds of those in power. This change now began to be 
 apparent. 
 
 In 1680 a bill was introduced to Parliament for exempting 
 Dissenters from penal laws. Friends lost no time in present- 
 ing themselves before the committee as the advocates of such 
 a measure, and urging the insertion of such clauses as would 
 afford relief to the menibers of the Society on the subject. of 
 oaths. So successful were they in these endeavors that they 
 obtained an amendment to the bill, admitting a declaration of 
 fidelity instead of the oath of allegiance. But the state of af- 
 fairs was not ripe for such an important change, and the bill 
 was lost. Another, however, passed both Houses, exempting 
 Dissenters from the operation of the statute of the 35th of 
 Elizabeth. But when it should have been presented to the 
 king for his assent, it was not to be found, having been 
 
28 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 secrete^ purposely, as was believed, to defeat the measure. In 
 the next year the Parliament passed the following resolutions, 
 viz : 
 
 "1. Eesolved, that it is the opinion of this House that the 
 acts of Parliament made in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and 
 King James, against Popish recusants, ought not to be ex- 
 tended against Protestant Dissenters. 
 
 " 2. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this House that the 
 prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the penal laws is at 
 this time grievous to the subject, a weakening of the Protes- 
 tant interest, an encouragement to Popery, and dangerous to 
 the peace of the kingdom." 
 
 These votes showed the growing feeling in fayor of Dis- 
 senters, and mark the gradual progress of those principles of 
 religious liberty which were more fully recognized in 1688, . 
 by the passage of the Toleration Act, under William and Mary ; 
 a measure which afforded great relief to Friends, though they 
 were still subject to persecutions for tithes and for refusing to 
 swear. After repeated applications to the king and Parlia- 
 ment, a bill was brought into the House, in 1695, and finally 
 passed early in the following year, allowing the solemn af- 
 firmation of a Friend instead of an oath. 
 
 Having taken a cursory view of the laws under which the 
 persecution of the Society was carried on, it is proper we 
 should briefly allude to the state of religion in the nation at 
 the time of, and subsequently to the rise of Friends. 
 
 In treating this subject, the statements of historians are of 
 the most opposite and contradictory character. Clarendon 
 and others, who espouse the royal cause, are unwilling to ac- 
 cord to the Puritans either sincerity or truth. They allege that 
 canting and h)fpocrisy were the order of the day — that a high 
 profession of religion, and great pretensions to sanctity and 
 strictness, were the roa4 to preferment and power, and were 
 therefore assumed from ambitious or interested motives. 
 
 The advocates of the Puritan party, on the other hand, 
 represent the established Church as extremely corrupt— her 
 ministers destitute of even the profession of religion, and in 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 29 
 
 many cases guilty of scandalous and immoral behavior. That 
 she enforced by severe penalties a compliance with supersti- 
 tious ceremonies, while she tolerated practices of evil tendency, 
 and discountenanced everything like zeal or fervor in religion. 
 Allowance, however, is to be made for the bias of party at- 
 tachments, and the distorted views which prejudice gives of 
 the character of an opponent. That great laxity of morals, as 
 well as neglect of their prescribed duties, had crept into the 
 clergy of the Church of England, cannot be denied. Many 
 of them never preached, and addicted themselves to hunting 
 and other sports, frequenting alehouses and taverns, and in- 
 dulging in drunkenness and other licentious practices. 
 
 In 1640 the Parliament appointed a committee to inquire 
 into the conduct of the ministers of religion, for removing 
 scandalous ministers and putting others in their places, as well 
 as to procure ministers for places where there were none. A 
 part of the proceedings of this committee was published, con- 
 taining cases of one hundred who had been tried and ejected, 
 from which it appears that eighty of them were convicted of 
 immoralities. The reputation of some of them has been de- 
 fended by writers on the side of the Church, though they ad- 
 mit that others were very vicious, and the offences of several 
 so foul that it is a shame even to report them. Baxter says, 
 that " In all the counties where he was acquainted, six to one, 
 at least, if not many more, that were sequestered by the com- 
 mittee, were by the oaths of witnesses proved insufficient or 
 scandalous, or especially guilty of drunkenness and swearing. 
 This I know, says he, will displease the party, but I am sure 
 that this is true." 
 
 The writings of Friends frequently mention ministers whose 
 characters were similar to those alluded to in the above state- 
 ments ; and if the language sometimes used by members of 
 the Society in addressing them appears severe, an ample 
 reason for it is furnished by the disgraceful conduct to which 
 too many were addicted. It is not designed, however, to in- 
 volve the whole body in indiscriminate censure. There were 
 doubtless, among them persons of sincere piety and exempla- 
 
30 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 ry lives, who, according to the degree of light afforded them, 
 endeavored to discharge their duties with fidelity. 
 
 When the reins of government came into the hands of the 
 Puritans, efforts were made to procure a reformation in the 
 morals of the nation. The licentious practices which had 
 grown out of the encouragement given to games, sports, and 
 revels, on the First-day of the week, were checked. Those 
 vain amusements, together with stage plays, were prohibited ; 
 the observance of the Firstrday was strictly enforced, and regu- 
 lar attendance at places of worship enjoined. 
 
 It was certainly a period when the profession of religion, 
 and a compliance with its exterior requisitions, were held in 
 high esteem ; though it cannot be denied that there were some 
 who put on. the garb in order more effectually to accomplish 
 their ambitious and sinister designs. However just the se- 
 vere censures of some historians may be with reference to 
 these individuals, they cannot with fairness be applied to 
 others ; nor should the whole mass of Puritans be stigmatized 
 in consequence of the duplicity of some particular professo'rs. 
 
 The following observations from Orme's life of Owen will 
 serve to illustrate the religious condition of the nation during 
 the Protectorship of Oliver, viz : 
 
 " Of the true state of religion during the period of Crom- 
 well's government it is difficult to form an accurate estimate. 
 Judging from certain external appearances, and comparing 
 them with the times which followed, the opinion must be highly 
 favorable. Religion was the language and garb of the court ; 
 prayer and fasting were fashionable exercises; a profession of 
 religion was the road to preferment; not a play was acted in 
 all England for many years; and from the prince to the 
 peasant and common soldier the features of Puritanism were 
 universally exhibited. Judging again from the wildness and 
 extravagance of various opinions and practices which then ob- 
 tained, and from the fanatical slang and hypocritical grimace 
 which were adopted by many, merely to answer a purpose, 
 our opinion will necessarily be unfavorable. The truth 
 perhaps lies between the extremes of unqualified censure 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 31 
 
 and undistinguishing approbation. Making all due allowance 
 for the infirmity and sin which were combined with the pro- 
 fession of religion — making every abatement for the induce- 
 ments which then encouraged the use of a religious vocabulary 
 — admitting that there was even a large portion of pure 
 fanaticism, still we apprehend an immense mass of genuine 
 religion will remain. There must have been a large quantity 
 of sterling coin when there was such a circulation of counterfeit. 
 In the best of the men of that period there was, doubtless, a 
 tincture of unscriptural enthusiasm, and the use of a phrase- 
 ology revolting to the taste of modern time ; in. many perhaps 
 there was nothing more ; but to infer that therefore all was 
 base, unnatural deceit, would be unjust and unwise. ' A ref- 
 ormation,' says Jortin, ' is seldom carried»on without heat and 
 vehemence which borders on enthusiasm. As Cicero has ob- 
 served, that there never was a great man sine afflahi divino 
 [without a divine inbreathing], so in times of religious contests 
 there seldom was a man very zealous for liberty, civil and 
 ecclesiastical, and a declared active enemy to insolent tyranny, 
 blind superstition, political godliness, bigotry, and pious frauds, 
 who had not a fervency of zeal which led him, on some oc- 
 casions, beyond the bounds of sober, temperate reason.' " 
 
 From the dawn of the Keformation, the spirit of religious 
 inquiry had been kept alive and strengthened by the very ef- 
 forts used to suppress it. The shackles with which priestcraft 
 had attempted to bind the human mind had been in some 
 measure broken, and an earnest desire awakened after the 
 saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. This was in- 
 creased by the troubles of the times. The nation was torn by 
 intestine strife. Civil war, with all its attendant evils, raged 
 throughout the country, and the property, as well as the lives 
 of the subjects, were at the mercy of a lawless soldiery. Many 
 were stripped of their outward possessions, reduced to poverty 
 and want, and often obliged to abandon their homes and flee 
 for the preservation of their lives. 
 
 This melancholy state of affairs had a tendency to loosen 
 their attachments from the world, by showing the precarious 
 
32 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 tenure of all earthly enjoyments, and to induce men to press 
 after those substantial and permanent consolations which are 
 only to be found in a religious life. 
 
 Where the ecclesiastical and civil power were so frequently 
 shifting hands, and the national form of religion changing with 
 every change of rulers, new sects and opinions arising, and 
 different teachers of religion inviting their attention, and say- 
 ing, " Lo, here is Christ! or lo, He is there!" it is not surprising 
 that the honest and sincere inquirers after the right way of 
 the Lord should be greatly perplexed. The effect of these 
 commotions was to wean men from a dependence on each 
 other in the work of religion, and to prepare their minds for 
 the reception of the important truth that, however useful in- 
 strumental means cff divine appointment may be, it is the 
 glory of the gospel dispensation that the Lord, by his Holy 
 Spirit, is himself the teacher of his people. Previous to the 
 commencement of George Fox's ministry, many had with- 
 drawn from all the acknowledged forms of public worship^ and 
 were engaged in diligently searching the Holy Scriptures, with 
 prayer for right direction in the path of duty, and frequently 
 meeting in select companies for the worship of Almighty God 
 and their mutual edification. Among these the preaching of 
 George Fox found a ready entrance, and many of them joined 
 in religious profession with him. 
 
 The period of which we have been speaking may justly be 
 denominated the age of polemic strife. The war itself had been 
 commenced ostensibly for the redress of religious grievances. 
 In the camp and the field, as welj as by the fireside, religion 
 was the absorbing ' theme. The Baptists and Independents 
 encouraged persons to preach who had not studied for the 
 ministry nor been formally ordained ; and numbers of this 
 description engaged in the vocation with unwearied assiduity, 
 often holding meetings in the fields or preaching in the 
 market-places. The Parliament army abounded with them, 
 and preaching, praying, and disputing on points of doctrine 
 were daily to be heard among both officers and soldiers. 
 Public disputations were also common, and were often con- 
 
KISB OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 33 
 
 ducted with a warmth of temper and harshness of language 
 which seemed hardly consistent with the meek and gentle 
 spirit of the Gospel. Modern ideas of courtesy and propriety 
 can scarcely tolerate the latitude of expression which the 
 antagonists sometimes indulged toward each other, not only 
 on these occasions, but in their controversial essays. 
 
 Amid so much strife and contention, and the intemperate 
 feelings naturally arising out of them, it is not surprising that 
 even good men should have formed erroneous opinions of the 
 character and sentiments of each other. They judged rather 
 by the impulses of prejudice and sectarian feeling than by the 
 law of truth and Christian kindness. In the heat of discus- 
 sion the mind is not in a condition to form a sound and cor- 
 rect judgment. The weakness or mistakes of an opponent are 
 seen through a medium which greatly magnifies them, while 
 his virtues are either depreciated or distorted into errors. The 
 controversial writings of the times furnish evidence of the 
 existence of these uncharitable feelings among nearly all de- 
 nominations of professors, and he who reads them with the 
 enlightened and liberal views of religious toleration which 
 now happily obtain, will observe with regret men of unques- 
 tionable piety unchristianizing each other for opinion's sake, 
 and lament that such monuments of human frailty should 
 have been handed down to posterity. 
 
 Those who judge of the writings of the first Friends by 
 modern standards of literary excellence and courtesy, are apt 
 to censure them for their severity. Much, however, may be 
 said in extenuation of them. Friends were particularly ob- 
 noxious to the hatred of the clergy, in consequence of their 
 unyielding opposition to a ministry of human appointment, to 
 the system of tithes and a forced maintenance. Their views 
 on these subjects, which they fearlessly published, struck di- 
 rectly at priestcraft. Deeply affected by the corruption which 
 they saw among many who assumed the sacred office, they 
 boldly declaimed against their cupidity, licentiousness, and 
 persecution. This course drew upon them a host of enemies, 
 who were not very nice in the choice of means to lessen their 
 
34 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 influence and prejudice their characters. Friends were as- 
 sailed with calumny and misrepresentation ; opinions and 
 practices were charged upon them of which they solemnly de- 
 clared themselves innocent ; yet they were again and again 
 renewed with the boldest effrontery. The conduct of some of 
 the visionary sects which arose about the same time was un- 
 justly imputed to them, and every advantage that could be 
 taken was eagerly embraced to prejudice their religious pro- 
 fession. Harassed by this unchristian conduct, and at the 
 same time smarting under a cruel persecution, they must have 
 been more than human if the weakness of nature had never 
 betrayed them into an unguarded or intemperate expression. 
 A comparison, however, with other controversialists of the 
 times will show that they were not peculiar in this respect. 
 It should be recollected, too, that language, as well as the regu- 
 lations of decorum toward opponents, have undergone a great 
 change since that time. Expressions which sound harsh and 
 offensive to modern ears, were then considered strictly within 
 the limits of propriety, and appear to have given no offence to 
 those who were the objects of them. This license of the tongue 
 and pen is found also in the Parliamentary debates, and ap- 
 pears to have characterized those times of excitement and re- 
 crimination. 
 
 Another practice which sometimes prevailed was that of 
 going into the places of worship and addressing the congrega- 
 tion during the time of service. Custom had sanctioned the 
 practice, of asking the minister at the close of the service re- 
 specting difiicult or abstruse points, which required explana- 
 tion. This liberty was exercised to a much greater extent 
 during the period of which we have been speaking, and not 
 unfrequently a dispute followed. The overthrow of the na- 
 tional form of worship, and the consequent termination of 
 ecclesiastical restrictions, had a tendency to induce greater 
 latitude in this respect than comports with our ideas of good 
 order. The manner in which Friends speak of those cases in 
 which they went to places of worship other than their own, 
 induces the belief that it was not extraordinary ; and in most. 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 35 
 
 if not all instances, in which violence to their persons was the 
 consequence, it appears to have been the doctrine delivered, 
 rather than the time and manner of communicating it, which 
 called forth the angry passions of the assailants. Friends were 
 not alone in this course, and sometimes their ministrations 
 were so acceptable to the audience as to induce them to re- 
 main after the stated preacher had withdrawn. 
 
 The religious men of that day are commonly charged with 
 evincing a fanatical and enthusiastic spirit, and Friends of 
 course come in for a large share of the censure. To deny that 
 there were cases in which such a spirit was evinced would be 
 folly ; but to brand whole communities of professing Chris- 
 tians with those epithets on account of the excesses of a 
 few members would be extremely unjust. It is, moreover, 
 diflScult for us to judge correctly of the exigencies of the 
 church during that period, and what degree of energy and 
 fervor was requisite to carry those holy men through the work 
 of their day. We know that a much stronger feeling must have 
 been necessary to stem the torrent of abuse and persecution, 
 and carry forward the reformation, than the present day of 
 outward ease and liberty would probably elicit. It is, more- 
 over, highly unreasonable to allow men of the world their 
 fervor and self-devotion in the pursuit of the comparatively 
 trivial objects of their choice, and yet censure them in those 
 who are pressing after the momentous concerns of salvation 
 with an earnestness becoming their vast importance. 
 
 In the succeeding reign of Charles II., the face of things was 
 greatly changed. The Court was devoted to licentious pleas- 
 ures, while religion and religious things were made a mere 
 laughing stock. The restoration opened the very floodgates 
 of vice and wickedness. " A spirit of extravagant joy," says 
 Bishop Burnet, " spread over the nation, that brougbt in with 
 it the throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety : 
 all ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overrun 
 the three kingdoms to such a degree that it very much cor- 
 rupted all their morals. Under the cover of drinking the 
 king's health, there were great disorders and great riots every 
 
36 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 where." This lamentable state of things was the source of 
 deep concern to Friends, several of whom addressed the king 
 on the subject, reminding him of the fate of Sodom and Go- 
 morrha; and that in his own dominions wickedness had 
 reached a height which must certainly call down the Divine 
 displeasure. Many Friends were engaged to go to the courts 
 of justice and exhort the officers to the discharge of their 
 duties in endeavoring to suppress it ; they also preached against 
 it in the markets and places of public entertainment. So con- 
 trary were their example and precepts to the prevailing cor- 
 ruptions, and so plain and fearless the rebukes they adminis- 
 tered, that they were subjected to much abuse ; yet in many 
 cases they were the happy instruments of turning sinners from 
 the evil of their ways. The licentiousness which had infected 
 nearly all ranks of society, and was tolerated, if not counte- 
 nanced, by too many whose duty it was to repress it, furnished 
 ample reasons for the close and even sharp expostulations 
 which are found about this time in the writings of Friends. 
 
 In taking a view of the religious principles of the Society, 
 it is proper to remark that they have always scrupulously 
 adhered to the position of proving their doctrines by the tes- 
 timony of the Holy Scriptures, rejecting whatever was contra- 
 ry to the tenor of those Divine writings. In their ministerial 
 labors their constant appeal to the people agaiflst the existing 
 errors was to Holy Scripture. It is a well known fact that 
 George Fox carried a Bible with him, which he frequently 
 used in his preaching ; and in the meeting-house which he gave 
 to Friends of Swarthmore he placed a Bible, for the con- 
 venience of reference and perusal by those who attended the 
 meeting. Samuel Bownas also carried a copy of the Holy 
 Scriptures with him, and sometimes preached with it in his 
 hand ; and there is reason to believe that the practice was not 
 uncommon. These facts contradict the groundless accusation 
 which is some times made, that those worthy men did not ac- 
 knowledge the paramount authority of Holy Scripture over 
 all other writings. The Society has always accepted them 
 fully and literally, as a rule of faith and practice under the 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FKIENDS. 37 
 
 enlightening influences of the Spirit of Truth, by which" they 
 were given forth. Such is the high character they have ever 
 attached to the sacred text that they uniformly refused to ac- 
 cept instead of it the glosses and interpretations of school 
 men. It was thus they were led to the observance of the posi- 
 tive commands of our Saviour not to swear or fight, even in 
 self defence, as well as to the strict and literal acceptance of 
 those precepts which forbid woi-ldly compliance and indul- 
 gence; from the force of which too many professors have 
 sought to escape. It is true that they recommended their 
 hearers to Christ Jesus the Heavenly Teacher, who, by. his 
 Holy Spirit, has come to teach his people himself; yet they 
 were careful to support this recommendation by showing its 
 entire consonance with the whole scope of the Christian dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 But while Friends fully admitted the Divine origin and au- 
 thority of the Sacred Volume, and acknowledged the richness 
 of the blessing we enjoy in having it preserved and trans- 
 mitted to us through the goodness of Divine Providence, they 
 dared not put it in the place of Christ, either as regarded 
 honor or office, nor prefer it to the operations and teachings 
 of the Holy Spirit in the heart ; errors which they believed 
 they saw in many of the high professors of their day. 
 
 They wished the Scriptures of Truth and the Holy Spirit to 
 occupy the places in the work of salvation respectively as- 
 signed to them in the Bible itself, and that the honor due to 
 the Author and Giver should not be conferred on the gifl. It 
 was for these causes that they pressed on professors the neces- 
 sity of coming unto Christ, that they might have life, even 
 though versed in the literal knowledge of the Bible. That as 
 its precious truths are not savingly known or appreciated by 
 the unassisted reason of fallen man, so it is necessary to seek 
 the aid of the Holy Spirit, which searcheth all things, yea, the 
 deep things of God, to open our understandings and illumi- 
 nate the darkness of our hearts, and prepare us for their re- 
 ception. In asserting the superiority of the knowledge thus 
 derived through the operations of the Holy Spirit over that 
 4 
 
38 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 which is acquired from reading the Sacred Volume by the 
 mere exercise of the unassisted intellectual faculties, Friends 
 were sometimes misunderstood ; and charged with denying 
 the Scriptures of Truth, placing their own writings on a level 
 with them, and professing that equally good Scriptures could 
 be written at the present day as those which were penned by 
 Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles. But no sooner were 
 these accusatiotis made than they were met by an unqualified 
 denial, asserting in the fullest and most solemn manner their 
 sincere belief in all that the Scriptures say respecting their 
 Divine origin, authority, and use. 
 
 The prominent manner in which they believed themselves 
 called to hold up the important offices of the Holy Spirit in 
 the work of salvation was another source of misapprehension 
 among their opponents. Baxter, in his account of Friends, 
 says of them, " They spake much for the dwelling and work- 
 ing of the Spirit in us, but little of justification and the pardon 
 of sin, and our reconciliation with God, through Jesus Christ." 
 
 It is not correct to say that Friends "spake little" on the 
 great doctrines of justification and remission of sins through 
 Christ Jesus our propitiation, for they frequently and earnest- 
 ly insisted on them. But finding that these were generally ad- 
 mitted by all Christian professors, while many either entirely 
 denied or undervalued the work of the Holy Spirit in the 
 heart, they were engaged to call the attention of the people to 
 this, as the life of true religion ; without which the Scriptures 
 could not make them wise unto salvation, and Christ would 
 have died for them in vain. But while thus enforcing this im- 
 portant doctrine of Holy Scripture, they were careful to recog- 
 nize and acknowledge the whole scope of the Gospel in all its 
 fullness. They declared against that construction of the doc- 
 trine of Christ's satisfaction which taught men to believe they 
 could be justified from their sins while they continued in them 
 impenitent ; asserting that the very design of Christ's coming 
 in the flesh was to save people from their sins, and to destroy 
 the works of the devil. Yet they fully and gratefUlly ac- 
 knowledged the mercy of God. in giving his dear Son a ransom 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 39 
 
 and atonement for mankind, that the penitent sinner might 
 be justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is 
 in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Many of them were persons who had been highly esteemed 
 for their piety in the Societies with which th^y had formerly 
 been connected, and several of them had been preachers. In 
 the progress of their religious experience they were convinced 
 that they had been resting too much on a bare belief of what 
 Christ had done and suffered for them when personally on 
 earth, and also in the ceremonies of religion, without sufficient- 
 ly pressing after the knowledge of " Christ in them the hope 
 of glory;" to feel his righteous government set up in their 
 hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit giving them the vic- 
 tory over sin in all its motions, and qualifying them to serve God 
 in newness of life. They saw that the Holy Scriptures held 
 up to the view of Christians a state of religious advancement 
 and stability, far beyond that which most of the professors of 
 their day appeared to aim at or admit ; a state in which sin 
 was to have no more dominion over them, because the law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had set them free from the 
 law of sin and death. That this was an inward work, not ef- 
 fected by a bare assent of the understanding to the blessed 
 truths contained in the Bible, hearing sermons, dipping or 
 sprinkling in water, or partaking of bread and wine, but a real 
 chaHge of the heart and affections by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost inwardly revealed, regenerating the soul, creating it 
 anew in Christ Jesus, and making all things pertaining to it 
 of God. 
 
 Convinced that this great work was necessary to salvation, 
 and yet in great danger of being overlooked amid a round of 
 ceremonial performances, and a high profession of belief in 
 Christ as the propitiation for sins, they zealously preached the 
 doctrine of the new birth, calling their hearers to come to 
 Christ Jesus, the true Light which lighteth every man that 
 Cometh into the world ; that they might experience Him to 
 shine into their hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge 
 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 
40 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 The offices of the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, as the guide 
 into all truth, as the unction from the Holy One, which 
 teacheth of all things, and is Truth, and no lie, was the great 
 theme of their contemplation and ministry, and it stands forth 
 no less conspicuously in their writings. 
 
 When we turn to the Sacred Volume, and read there the 
 numerous testimonies borne to the great importance of this 
 doctrine in the Gospel plan, we cannot wonder to find it 
 prominently set forth by a people professing eminently the 
 spirituality of religion. But to infer from the fact of their 
 preaching Christ within that they designed in any degree to 
 deny Christ without, or to derogate from any part of the work 
 which in adorable condescension He was graciously pleased 
 to accomplish for us in the prepared body, or from that com- 
 plete justification from our sins which is obtained through liv- 
 ing faith in Him as our sacrifice and Mediator, would be 
 illiberal and unjust. 
 
 When such accusations were brought against tbem by their 
 enemies, they indignantly repelled and denied them ; and 'the 
 ofl[icial declarations and acts of the Society evince that such 
 opinions were never received or tolerated by it. 
 
 In carrying out these views of the spiritual nature of the 
 Gospel, and of that great work in the soul described as " the' 
 washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost," 
 the primitive Friends were led to the adoption of their peculiar 
 sentiments respecting water baptism and the use of the bread 
 and wine. They found it declared in the Sacred Volume that 
 as " there is one Lord and one faith," so there is but " one bap- 
 tism ; " and that " the baptism which now saves is not the 
 putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good 
 conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 
 Corresponding with this is the saying of the apostle to the 
 Romans : " Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
 into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ? therefore we 
 are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ 
 was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
 so we also should walk in newness of life." Also, that to the 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 41 
 
 Galatians, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, 
 have put on Christ ; '' and to the Colossians, where he declares 
 that those who are in Christ are " buried with Him in baptism, 
 wherein, also, ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the 
 operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Sen- 
 sible that these blessed effects were not the result of dipping 
 in or sprinkling the body with water, and apprehensive that 
 many professors of religion were trusting to the outward cere- 
 mony, as a means of initiating them into the Church of Christ, 
 while neglecting the necessary work of " repentance toward 
 God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," they pressed upon 
 their hearers the necessity of experiencing that one saving 
 baptism which John describes when drawing the distinction 
 between his dispensation and that of Christ " I indeed bap- 
 tize you with water: but One mightier than I cometh, the 
 latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose : He shall 
 baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 
 Convinced that the Gospel is not a dispensation of shadows, 
 but the very substance of the heavenly things themselves, 
 they believed that the true communion of saints consisted in 
 that Divine intercourse which is maintained between our mer- 
 ciful Saviour and the souls of his faithful disciples, agreeable 
 to his own gracious words : " Behold, I stand at the door and 
 knock : If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
 come in to him and sup with him, and he with me." 
 
 There is a strong tendency in the human mind to substitute 
 the form of religion for the power, and to satisfy the conscience 
 by a cold compliance with exterior performances while the 
 heart remains unchanged. And inasmuch as the baptism of 
 the Holy Ghost and the communion of the body and blood of 
 Christ, of which water baptism and the bread and wine are 
 admitted to be only signs, are not dependent on those outward 
 ceremonies, nor necessarily connected with them, and are de- 
 clared in Holy Scripture to be effectual to the salvation of the 
 soul, which the signs are not, Friends have always believed it 
 their place and duty to hold forth to the world a clear and 
 decided testimony to the living substance — the spiritual work 
 4* 
 
42 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of Christ in the soul, and a blessed communion with Him 
 thej:^ 
 
 JA^istinguishing trait in the character of the first Friends 
 was that, amid the great political commotions which prevailed, 
 they attached themselves to neither of the parties, nor entered 
 into any of their ambitious views. \,\It was a principle of their 
 religion to avoid all strife and contention, and to live-peacea- 
 bly under whatever form of government Divine Providence 
 was pleased to permit/ ' When, the laws of the land came into 
 collision with their duty to God, and they could not for con- 
 science sake actively comply with their demands, they patient- 
 ly endured the penalties^ When thajiation was in a great 
 ferment after the death of Cromwell, peo rge Fox, ever watch- 
 ful for the welfare of his brethren, addressed a letter exhort- 
 ing them " to live in love and peace with all men — to keep 
 clear of all the commotions of the world, and not to inter- 
 meddle with the powers of the earth, but to let their conversa- 
 tion be in heaven." — "All who pretend to fight for Christ," 
 says he, " are deceived ; for his kingdom is not of this world, 
 and therefore his servants do not fight." 
 
 Unaided by any alliance with the great or powerful, ridi- 
 culed and hated by the world, and everywhere pursued with 
 contempt and cruelty, the principles of Friends silently spread 
 through the kiiigdom, winning the assent of men who were in- 
 ferior to none in education, talents or respectability. fAmid 
 the severest persecution, when deprived of every temporal 
 comfort, torn from home and all its endearments, with every 
 probability that they should seal the truth of theirprinciples 
 with the sacrifice of their lives, they faltered noO rThough all 
 around them looked dark and threatening, yefmerewas light 
 and peace within ;-^they Hot only met their suflferings with 
 patience and fortitude in the unresisting spirit of their Divine 
 Master, but through the goodness of God were so filled with 
 heavenly consolation that they sang for joy even in the ex- 
 tremity of suffering. 'Jj 
 
 reposed to .almost universal hatred and abuse, their names 
 despised and cast out from among men, the disinterested love 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 43 
 
 they showed for each other exciterl the admiration even of 
 their eijeniies. While each one seemed regardless of his own 
 liberty and estate, all were zealous in pleading the cause of 
 their suifering brethren when occasion presented ; freely sacri- 
 ficing their time and property to promote their comfort, and 
 even offering themselves to lie in prison instead of them whom 
 they thought could be less easily spared from their families or 
 the Society. _ 
 
 Such fruits of Christian love and forbearance, under proH 
 tracted and poignant suffering, unjustly inflicted, have rarely 
 been exhibited to the world ; and nothing less than the mar- 
 vellous extension of Almighty Power could have sustained and 
 carried them through it all, 'to the peaceful enjoyment of that 
 liberty of conscience for which they nobly contended." Their 
 conduct furnishes the strongest evidence of sincere and devoted 
 attachment to the cause of Christ. It proves that they were 
 true men, earnestly engaged in seeking after truth ; while the 
 Divine support they experienced, and the brightness with 
 which they were enabled to hold forth, in their example, the 
 Christian virtues, are no inconsiderable testimonies of the favor 
 of that God whom they delighted to serve. .— 
 
 The character of the founders of the Society has not been 
 duly appreciated, even by many of their successors in religious 
 profession. We look back to the age in which they lived as 
 one of comparative ignorance ; and tracing the improvements 
 which have since been made in the arts, and in literature and 
 the sciences, as well as the liberal views of civil and religious 
 liberty which now generally obtain, we are apt to undervalue 
 the wisdom and attainments of our ancestors. But our opinion 
 respecting them will change when we discover how far they 
 were in advance of the times in which they flourished; that 
 though many of them possessed but few of the advantages of 
 literary instruction, yet their minds, enlightened by the influ- 
 ences of the Spirit of Truth, and expanded by Christian be- 
 nevolence, were prepared to perceive and to promulgate those 
 great moral and religious truths which are considered the 
 peculiar ornament and glory of the present age. 
 
44 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 One of the earliest subjects of concern to George Fox was 
 the want of moderation and temperance in eating and drink- 
 ing. " The Lord showed me," says he, " that I might not eat 
 and drink to make myself wanton, but for health, using the 
 creatures as servants, in their places, to the glory of Him that 
 created them." He also observes that he was engaged " in 
 warning such as kept public houses for entertainment that 
 they should not let people have more drink than would do 
 them good," and in crying against the sin of drunkenness; 
 setting an example of remarkable abstinence in his manner of 
 life. The testimony thus early and zealously enforced has ever 
 since been maintained, and from that period to the present, 
 Friends, as a body, have been a Temperance Society. 
 
 No less clear were his views in regard to speaking the truth 
 on all occasions, without the use of an oath. "The Lord 
 showed me," says he, " that though the people of the world 
 have mouths full of deceit and changeable words, yet I was to 
 keep to yea and nay in all things, and that my words should 
 be few and savory, seasoned with grace; warning all to 
 deal justly, to speak the truth, to let their yea be yea and their 
 nay nay, and to do unto others as they would have others 
 do unto them; that Christ commanded. Swear not at all; 
 and God, when He bringeth the first begotten into the world, 
 saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him, even Christ 
 Jesus, who saith. Swear not at all. As for the plea that men 
 make for swearing, viz , to end their strife, Christ, who forbids 
 swearing, destroys the devil and his works, who is the author 
 of strife.'" 
 
 The uniform and consistent example. of the first Friends in 
 respect to a scrupulous adherence to their word as men of 
 truth, and to strict uprightness in all their dealings, soon gain- 
 ed them a high reputation for those virtues. Their objection 
 to the use of oaths cost them much sufiering,but their faithful- 
 ness at length triumphed over opposition, and their conscien- 
 tious scruple was recognized and tolerated by an act of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 The benevolent and enlightened mind of George Fox was 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FKIENDS. 45 
 
 deeply affected with the sanguinary character of the penal code 
 of Great Britain, and believing that the benign spirit of the 
 Gospel would lead to save men's lives rather than to destroy 
 them, he was engaged to write to the judges and others in au- 
 thority, " concerning their putting to death for small matters, 
 and to show them how contrary it was to the law of God in 
 old time ; for," says he, " I was under great suffering in my 
 spirit because of it." In an address, "to the Parliament of 
 the Commonwealth of England," setting forth a number of 
 particulars " for taking away oppressive laws," &c., he says : 
 " Let no one be put to death for [stealing] cattle, or money, 
 or any outward thing — but let them restore ; and mind the 
 law of God, which is equity and measurable, agreeable to the 
 offence." 
 
 This is perhaps the earliest account extant of any proposal 
 for lessening the frequency of capital punishments. .1 
 
 The amiable and pacific principles which produced these 
 views in the founder of the Society gave rise to corresponding 
 feelings in the minds of other members. William Penn, in 
 framing the laws of Pennsylvania, mitigated considerably the 
 harshness of the English code, and it is a well known fact that 
 Friends have always been the advocates of a mild system of 
 punishment, coupled with penitentiary regulations. 
 
 In the improvement of prisons and prison discipline they 
 also took the lead. 
 
 Being frequently 'confined for his conscientious adherence 
 to the precepts of Christ and his apostles, he had an opportu- 
 nity of seeing the wretched condition of the jails in England, 
 and of witnessing the demoralizing effects of associating the 
 novice in crime with the hardened offender. His tender feel- 
 ings were quickly awakened on this interesting subject, and 
 when about twenty-six years of age he published a paper, 
 showing " what a hurtful thing it was for prisoners to lie so 
 long in jail, and how they learned wickedness one of another 
 in talking of their bad deeds ; " and inciting the judges of 
 courts to the prompt administration of law, that the prisoners 
 might as quickly as practicable be removed from the influence 
 
46 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of such corrupting examples. In the address to the ParUa- 
 meat, before quoted, he says, " Let none be gaolers that, are 
 drunkards, swearers, or oppressors of the people ; but such as 
 may be good examples to the prisoners. And let none lie long 
 in jail, for that is the way to spoil people, and to make more 
 thieves; for there they learn wickedness together." Again he 
 says, " Let all jails be in wholesome places, that the prisoners 
 may not lie in the filth and straw like chaff," &c. ; and after 
 mentioning some of the nuisances then existing in prisons, he 
 adds, " Let these things be mended." 
 
 There are several other recommendations which bespeak 
 the liberality and correctness of his views, such as the follow- 
 ing, yiz : 
 
 "Let all the laws of England be brought into a known 
 tongue." Many of them, as well as the proceedings of courts, 
 were then in the Latin language. 
 
 " Let no swearer, nor curser, nor drunkard, bear any office 
 whatever, nor be put in any place." I 
 
 " Let none keep alehouses or taverns but those who fear 
 God ; that will not let the creatures of God be destroyed by 
 drunkenness." 
 
 " Let no man keep an alehouse or tavern that keeps bowls, 
 shuffle-boards, or fiddlers, or dice, or cards." 
 
 " Let neither beggar, nor blind people, nor fatherless, nor 
 widows, nor cripples, go begging up and down the streets ; but 
 that a house may be provided for them all, and also meat, that 
 there may be never a beggar among you." i 
 
 " And let all this wearing of gold lace and costly attire be 
 ended, and clothe the naked and feed the hungry with the 
 superfluity. And turn not your ear away from the cry of the 
 
 ' About the time that George Fox attained his twenty-sixth 
 year, considerable effi)rts were made to induce him to join the 
 Parliament army, and a captaincy oyer a band of newly-raised 
 troops was offered to him. But his religious opinions would 
 not permit him to take up arms in any cause. The ruling 
 principle of his life was " Peace on earth and good will to men." 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 47 
 
 He whose commands he esteemed of paramount authority, di- 
 rected his followers to " love their enemies," to do good to 
 those who hated them, and to pray for those who despitefully 
 used and evilly treated them. He had none of that sophistry 
 which could reconcile the horrors of the battle-field— the anger, 
 the revenge and the cruelty which reign there—with these 
 benevolent precepts. The simple acceptance of revealed truth 
 was strongly marked in the character of the primitive Qua- 
 kers. They sought not to evade or fritter away the strict and 
 positive injunctions of Holy "Writ, because they came in col- 
 lision with popular opinion, or thwarted the wayward inclina- 
 tions of the human heart. " I told them," says George Fox, 
 when speaking of the above-mentioned circumstance, " that I 
 knew from whence all wars arose, even from the lusts, accord- 
 ing to James' doctrine, and that I lived in the virtue of that 
 life and power that took away the occasion of all wars. Yet 
 they courted me to accept the offer, and thought I did but com- 
 pliment them. But I told them I was come into the covenant 
 of peace, which was before wars and strifes.'' Persuasion not 
 effecting their object, they threw him into the common jail, 
 where he lay for six months, but without shaking his con- 
 stancy. 
 
 When Sir George Booth afterward rose in favor of the 
 king, the Committee of Safety solicited Friends to enroll and 
 join the army, offering important posts and commands to some 
 of them. Sl^ neither the sharpness of their sufferings on one 
 hand, nor prospects of honors or preferment on the other, could 
 induce them to violate their Christian testimony in favor of 
 universal peace ; and to the present day it has been steadily 
 maintained, at no inconsiderable sacrifice both of liberty and 
 estate. 
 
 The situation of the African race and of the Indian nations 
 in America claimed much of G. Fox's attention and sympathy. 
 One of his first engagements among his friends, after reaching 
 Barbadoes, was to hold a meeting of conference, in which, 
 among other directions, he enjoined them "to train their 
 negroes up in the fear of God, that all might come to the 
 
48 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 knowledge of the Lord, and that, with Joshua, every master 
 of a family might say, -'as for me and my house, we will serve 
 the Lord.' I desired also that they would cause their over- 
 seers to deal mildly and gently with their negroes, and not use 
 cruelty toward them, as the manner of some hath been and is, 
 and that after certain years of servitude they should make 
 them free." In one of his epistles he expresses the sentiment 
 that " liberty is the right of all men," and on many occasions 
 he evinced a strong solicitude that the benefits of a religious 
 education should be extended to them, as being equally in- 
 terested with others in that salvation which was purchased 
 for us by the Saviour's death. 
 
 His mind, expanded by Christian benevolence, reached forth 
 in desire for the salvation of all mankind. So exceedingly 
 precious did he esteem the glad tidings of the Gospel, and so 
 adapted to the wants of man in every situation, that he not 
 only preached Christ crucified to the slaves and Indians while 
 in America, but urged upon his brethren the same duty. "All 
 Friends, everywhere," says he in one of his epistles, " who 
 have Indians or Blacks, are to preach the gospel to them and 
 other servants, if you be true Christians." " And also you 
 must instruct and teach your Indians and Negroes, and all 
 others, that Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every 
 man, and gave himself a ransom for all men, to be testified in 
 due time, and is the propitiation, not for the sins of Christians 
 only, but for the sins of the whole world." Again he ob- 
 serves, "Do not neglect your family meetings among your 
 whites and negroes, but do your diligence and duty to God 
 and them." In another epistle to his friends he directs them 
 to go among the Indians, and get the chiefs to assemble their 
 people, in order that they may declare to them God's free sal- 
 vation through Jesus Christ the Lord. 
 
 The same enlarged views are evinced by the letters he wrote 
 to some Friends, who, in pursuing a seafaring life, had been 
 carried captive to the coast of Africa. He advises them to 
 acquire a knowledge of the language spoken in the places 
 where they were situated, in order that they might be able to 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS'. 49 
 
 preach to the inhabitants the glad tidings of redemption 
 through a crucified Saviour, and to translate works which 
 would tend to promote Christian knowledge. 
 
 Nor was this Christian concern for the promulgation of the 
 Gospel confined to George Fox. William Penn, in his fre- 
 quent intercourse with the Indians, took especial care not only 
 to teach them Christianity by precept, but, by a just, liberal, 
 and blameless conduct and example, to prepare their minds 
 for the reception of its sublime truths. Ministers of the So- 
 ciety, at different periods, travelled into remote countries, 
 without the least prospect of temporal reward, in order to de- 
 clare unto others that free salvation of which, through the 
 mercy of God, they were made partakers. 
 
 In advocating the cause of religious and civil liberty the 
 Society of Friends has always stood conspicuous. During a 
 protracfed period of persecution and sufiering they nobly re- 
 fused to sacrifice their conscientious scruples, maintaining a 
 patient but firm and unyielding opposition to the arbitrary 
 intolerance and cruelty of ^ose in power. Their steadfast- 
 ness and boldness in suffering not only relieved other Dis- 
 senters from the sharpness of persecution, but tended to pre- 
 pare the way for those more correct views of toleration which 
 subsequently obtained. 
 
 Baxter, though not favorably disposed towards Friends, 
 bears testimony to their constancy under the cruel operation 
 of the Conventicle Act, observing, " Here the Quakers did 
 greatly relieve the sober people for a time ; for they were so 
 resolute, and so gloried in their constancy and sufierings, that 
 they assembled openly at the Bull and Mouth, near Alders- 
 gate, and were dragged away daily to the common jail, and 
 yet desisted aot, but the rest came next day. Abundance of 
 them died in prison, and vet they continued their assemblies 
 still." 
 
 On this passage, Orme, the biographer of Baxter, makes 
 this remark : " Had there been more of the same determined 
 spirit among others which the Friends displayed, the sufferings 
 5 
 
50 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 of all parties would sooner have come to an end. The' govern- 
 ment must have given way, as the spirit of the country would 
 have been effectually roused. The conduct of the Quakers 
 was infinitely to their honor.'' In another note relative to 
 Friends, the same writer remarks: "The heroic and persever- 
 ing conduct of the Quakers in withstanding the interferences 
 of government with the rights of conscience, by which they 
 finally secufed those peculiar privileges they so richly deserve 
 to enjoy, entitles them to the veneration of all the friends of 
 civil and religious freedom." 
 
 There is no doubt that the persecutions which disgraced 
 England during the seventeenth century, and of which Friends 
 in common with other Dissenters bore so large a share, con- 
 tributed very much toward the introduction and establishment 
 of those more liberal and correct views of toleration and civil 
 liberty which succeeded, and so happily distinguish the pres- 
 ent times. The constancy of Friends under suffering ; their 
 uniform testimony in favor of liberty of conscience to all ; the 
 boldness with which they exposed the rapacity and illegal pro- 
 ceedings of the persecuting priests, justices, and judges ; and 
 their repeated and earnest applications to the king and Par- 
 liament were eminently instrumental in preparing the way for 
 the passage of the Toleration Act, under William and Mary, 
 in 1688. 
 
 It was not as a boon for themselves that they urged the 
 adoption of this great measure : they took the simple ground 
 that liberty of conscience was the right of all men ; and that 
 all interference of the government in matters of religion, by 
 which the subject was debarred from the exercise of this right, 
 provided he did not mOlest others, was contrary to Christianity, 
 to reason, and to sound policy. 
 
 In framing the government of Pennsylvania, William Penn 
 adopted these principles, and carried them out to the fullest 
 extent; not only tolerating every religion which owned the 
 existence of a God, but making the professors of all eligible 
 to offices. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, in his History of the Revolution in 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 51 
 
 England, in explaining the part which William Penn took in 
 defending the declaration of indulgence issued by James — a 
 measure which, however juat the rights it granted, was never- 
 theless denounced as an unconstitutional and arbitrary assump- 
 tion of power — has these observations : " The most distinguished 
 of their converts was William Penn, whose father, Admiral 
 Sir William Penn, had been a personal friend of the king, 
 and one of his instructors in naval afikirs. This admirable 
 person had employed his great abilities in support of civil as 
 well as religious liberty, and had both acted and suffered for 
 them under Charles II. Even if he had not founded the Com- 
 monwealth of Pennsylvania, as an everlasting memorial of his 
 love of freedom, his actions and writings in England would 
 have been enough to absolve him from the charge of intend- 
 ing to betray the rights of his countrymen. But, though the 
 friend of Algernon Sidney, he had never ceased to intercede, 
 through his friends at court, for the persecuted. An absence 
 of two years in America, and the occupation of his mind, had 
 probably loosened his connection with English politicians, and 
 rendered him less acquainted with the principles of the govern- 
 ment. On the accession of James he was received by that 
 prince with favor, and hopes of indulgence to his suffering breth- 
 ren were early held out to him. He was soon admitted to terms 
 of apparent intimacy, and was believed to possess such influ- 
 ence that two hundred suppliants were often seen at his gates 
 imploring his intercession with the king. That it really was 
 great appears from his obtaining a promise of pardon for his 
 friend, Mr. Locke, which that illustrious man declined, because 
 he thought that the acceptance would have been a confession 
 of criminality. He appears in 1679, by his influence on James, 
 when in Scotland, to have obtained the release of all the Scotch 
 Quakers who were imprisoned, and he obtained the release of 
 many hundred Quaker .prisoners in England, as well as letters 
 from Lord Sunderland to the lord lieutenants in England for 
 favor to his persuasion several months before the declaration 
 of indulgence. It was no wonder that he should be gained 
 over by this power of doing good. The very occupations in 
 
52 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 which he was engaged brought daily before his mind the gen- 
 eral evils of intolerance and the sufferings of his own unfortu- 
 nate brethren." " It cannot be doubted that he believed the 
 king's object to be universal liberty in religion, and nothing 
 further. His own sincere piety taught him to consider relig- 
 ious liberty as unspeakably the highest of human privileges, 
 and he was too just not to be desirous of bestowing on all other 
 men that which he most earnestly sought for himself. He 
 who refused to employ force in the most just defence, felt a 
 singular abhorrence of its exertion to prevent good men from 
 following the dictates of their conscience." P. 289. 
 
 Previous to this period William Penn had written and suf- 
 fered much in defence of liberty of conscience, and it was 
 to be expected that, when thousands of his friends were suffer- 
 ing imprisonment and spoliation by merciless informers and 
 magistrates, he would eagerly embrace the relief afforded by 
 the king's indulgence, without a very profound investigation 
 of the disputed point of royal prerogative or the secret motives 
 which influenced the Crown. 
 
 Another subject which claimed the early attention of George 
 Fox was the promotion of useful learning. He recommended 
 the establishment of two boarding-schools, which were accord- 
 ingly opened, one for boys and the other for girls. Although 
 the Society has always contended that human learning waTnot 
 an essential requisite for the ministry of the gospel, yet it has 
 from a very early period been careful to provide for its mem- 
 bers the benefits of education. The following recommendation 
 was issued by the Yearly Meeting as early as the year 1695, 
 viz : 
 
 " Advised, that schoolmasters and mistresses who are faith- 
 ful Friends and well qualified be encouraged in all counties, 
 cities, great towns, or other places where there may be need ; 
 and that care be taken that poor Friends' children may freely 
 partake of such education as may tend to their benefit and 
 advantage, in order to apprenticeship." From that period to 
 the present time the subject has frequently been earnestly en- 
 joined on the attention of Friends, and large sums expended 
 
RISE OP THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 53 
 
 in founding seminaries for their youth. Soon after the settle- 
 ment of Philadelphia, William Penn founded a grammar school 
 for Greek and Latin, and incorporated a board of education, 
 which is still in operation, under the title of " The Overseers 
 of the Public School founded by charter, in the town and 
 county of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania," with a corporate 
 seal bearing this inscription : " Good instruction is better than 
 riches." 
 
 It would not be practicable in this brief sketch to do justice 
 to other members of the Society who aided in carrying out the 
 liberal views which we have endeavored to portray. It is suffi- 
 cient to remark that those views were the general character- 
 istics of the Society, and some of them peculiar to it. For a 
 long period they maintained many of them single-handed and 
 in opposition to the general voice of the community. That 
 their faithful labors in these great works of Christian benev- 
 olence have contributed to bring them to their present con- 
 dition cannot be denied ; nor yet that the principles of the 
 Society of Friends, and the practices consequent upon them, 
 are eminently calculated to promote the religious and moral 
 improvement of mankind, and to augment the sum of human 
 happiness. 
 
 It is no less the privilege and interest than it is the duty of 
 Christians to be diligent in the use of those means which a 
 merciful Providence has placed within their reach, for attain- 
 ing a correct knowledge of the principles and practices of our 
 holy religion. 
 
 If we have a proper sense of the shortness and uncertainty 
 of life, of our responsibility as accountable and immortal beings, 
 aud of the vast importance of the concerns which relate ^to the 
 salvation of the soul, we shall not rest satisfied without a care- 
 ful inquiry into the truth of those doctrines and precepts by 
 which we profess to regulate our conduct, and to build our 
 hopes of fiiture happiness in a world that will never have an 
 end. We shall frequently ponder the inspired pages of Holy 
 Writ as the divinely authorized record of the Christian relig- 
 ion, and raise our hearts in aspirations to our heavenly Father 
 5* 
 
54 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 for the light of his Holy Spirit to illumine our darkness, and 
 give us a saving knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus. Nor 
 will it be less interesting to us to trace out the result of these 
 principles, as exhibited in the examples of those who have gone 
 before us. — To inquire what fruits of holiness they produced 
 in their conduct and conversation, — what support they derived 
 from them amid the trials inseparable from mortal existence, 
 and what consolation and hope they yielded in the hours of 
 disease and of death. If, in the course of our researches, we 
 discover that they were remarkable for their justice, their 
 integrity, their meekmess and humility — were patieiit under 
 suffering, even when wrongfully inflicted ; zealously devoted 
 to the cause of Christ and cheerfully given up to spend their 
 time and substance for its advancement ; "blameless and harm- 
 less in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, amongst 
 whom they shone as lights in the world," we may be assured 
 that the tree whence these fruits of the Gospel sprung could 
 not be evil. The faith which showed itself by such works of 
 righteousness must be that by which the saints of old "obtained 
 a good report," and which was their victory. If we follow them 
 to the chamber of sickness and to the bed of death — witness the 
 tranquillity and composure of their spirits ; their humble, yet 
 steadfast reliance on the mercy of God through Christ Je- 
 sus ; their peace and joy in believing ; and their hope, full of 
 immortality and eternal life, we shall not only derive the 
 strongest evidence of the soundness of their Christian belief, 
 but, in admiration of its blessed and happy effects, be incited 
 to follow them as they followed Christ. 
 
 Differing, as Friends do, in some points from their fellow- 
 professors of the Christian name, construing the requisitions of 
 the Gospel with especial reference to the spiritual nature of 
 true religion, and its non-conformity to the fashion of " the 
 world which lieth in wickedness," their peculiarities in doc- 
 trine, manners, and phraseology have, ever since their first 
 rise, subjected them to greater or less degrees of misrepresen- 
 tation and obloquy. For although they have uniformly ap- 
 pealed to the Holy Scriptures as the standard and test of all 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 55 
 
 their doctrines and practices, freely rejecting whatever should 
 be proved to be inconsistent with their Divine testimony, yet, 
 either through ignorance, or prejudice, or the force of sectarian 
 attachments, their repeated declarations have been disregard- 
 ed or perverted, in order to represent them as slighting those 
 Sacred writings, and their principles as scarcely deserving 
 the name of Christian. 
 
 It is often more easy to disparage the character of an oppo- 
 nent, by loading him with opprobrious epithets, than to refute 
 his positions by sound and solid arguments ; and mankind are 
 generally so prone to adopt this course, rather than take the 
 trouble of impartial investigation, that it is not surprising the^ 
 terms enthusiasts, fanatics, Jesuits, and others of similar or 
 more odious import, should have been freely bestowed on 
 Friends, and credited by too many. Those who have not 
 had the opportunity, or who have disliked the task of ascer- 
 taining their real belief, and whose impressions have been 
 chiefly derived from caricatures drawn by persons whose 
 object and interest it is to place them in the wrong, could 
 scarcely fail to form opinions unfavorable to them as a body, 
 however they might respect the piety and sincerity of indi- 
 vidual members. Nor would it be surprising if the frequent 
 and confident reiteration of grave, though unjust, charges 
 should have the effect to awaken doubts, even in the minds of 
 the uninformed members themselves ; to lessen their esteem 
 for those devoted Christians, who were the instruments, di- 
 vinely fitted and made use of, in founding the Society ; and 
 to induce the apprehension that the way and the people thus 
 " everywhere spoken against " must indeed have little claim 
 to Christianity. 
 
 It may not be inappropriate to remind the reader that the 
 Son of God himself was " set for a sign that should be spoken 
 against," and such has been the lot of his church from the 
 earliest periods of its existence. Had the propagation of the 
 Gospel in the days of the apostles depended on the estimation 
 in which they were held by the wise, the learned, aud power- 
 ful of this world, or on. the report which they gave of its char- 
 
56 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 acter and design, it must have made little progress ; but there 
 were many others beside the Bereans who were more noble 
 than to be influenced by such means, and who searched for 
 them selves " whether these things were so." 
 
 Happily for the Society it has nothing to fear from inves- 
 tigation conducted in the spirit of candor and fairness. The 
 various accusations against it have been fearlessly met and 
 refuted, and of those who may entertain doubts respecting 
 the soundness of its faith it asks a calm and dispassionate 
 attention to its authorized vindications, and to its oflicial dec- 
 larations of faith. — Whatever ambiguity may hang over the 
 essays of some of its writers, arising either from the heat of 
 controversy, the redundant and loose phraseology of the tirries, 
 or from unduly pressing an argument, in order to discredit the 
 premises of an antagonist, by exposing the consequences de- 
 ducible from them, the declarations of faith and the ofiicial 
 acts of the Society prove conclusively that on the points 
 where they have been most questioned their views are clear 
 and Scriptural.. The records of the Society also show a long 
 nsnrf-wfSrthies whose dying hours and sayings bear ample 
 'testimony that the principles in which they lived, and by 
 .which they endeavored to regulate their actions, did not fail 
 them in the near prospect of death and eternity ; but admin- 
 istered all that support, consolation, and animating hope 
 which give to the death-bed of the Christian its peculiar in- 
 'tecest. 
 
 It is especially obligatory on the members to be conversant 
 in these matters. Ignorance of them, where the means of in- 
 formation are accessible, is discreditable, if not culpable. We 
 should be prepared to give to every one that asketh us a rea- 
 son for our faith and hope. If the things which belong to our 
 peace have a due place in our affections, we shall meditate 
 with pleasure on the experience of those who have trodden 
 the path of virtue before us. The fervor of our piety, the 
 strength of our attachment to religious truth, will be promoted 
 by frequently perusing their excellent writings, and dwelling 
 in serious contemplation on the bright example they have lefl 
 
RISE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 57 
 
 US, adorned with the Christian graces, and inviting us to follow 
 in their footsteps. 
 
 To whatever department of human pursuit we direct our 
 attention, we perceive that men delight in the productions of 
 congenial minds. He who finds that he has little relish for 
 serious things, and that it is difficult to fix his attention upon 
 them, may safely infer that his heart is not right in the sight 
 of God, nor its aspirations directed toward the kingdom of 
 heaven. The religious man delights to dwell on those things 
 which concern the salvation of his soul. He feels a lively in- 
 terest in the saints and holy men who have entered the celestial 
 city before him ; and, as he contemplates their blameless walk, 
 their faith and patience under trials, their simple obedience 
 and dedication, and, above all, the blessed animating hope of 
 an internal inheritance, which shed a bright radiance around 
 their dying beds, his whole soul kindles with desire to arise 
 and gird himself anew for the heavenly journey, and with in- 
 creased diligence and ardor to press toward the mark for the 
 prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus.